I'm generally perceived as a pretty funny guy, I joke around with both my reports and those I report to, and, yes, even with customers all the time. I've found that I don't need to diminish others to do this, there's plenty of other crap to joke about, like the quality of our products, how long it takes to get stuff done, the UX of the tools we share, dumb programming trends. It's easy to laugh without it being at the expense of others.

I'm glad that you wrote this, because "punch up, stupid" is just not that difficult a concept in humor.

Joking about the quality of your products is hurtful to the people who made them. Joking about dumb programming trends is offensive to the people who find them useful. You're still happily diminishing people, only now you won't even do it to their faces.

Criticism of a product or trend is not the same as criticism of its creator or users--if it even is valid criticism rather than social noise

I'm joking about the quality of the products I make, to be clear.

I would say it's actually hard to make jokes that aren't at the expense of others. Otherwise, everybody would be doing it.

It's fine to laugh at things. But circulating a list with customer's real names that you think is funny is very unprofessional. I'm sure my coworkers and I have had a laugh now and then about a name that is strange to us. But we wouldn't post it up somewhere and keep making fun on a long term basis. That's a different level.

It's very easy to find jokes material without making fun of other people.

You just have to have that mindset. Make fun of yourself instead of others, for instance.

They were laughing at people, not things.

They were laughing at people's names.

They were amused by a double meaning found in an arrangement of alphabetic characters.

It's really not a big deal.

It's not a big deal that a bunch of so-called adults were using company time, data, and resources to act like elementary schoolyard bullies making fun of people's names?

Inevitably that sort of thing gets out, and insulting your customers' names is not really a great business strategy.

Beyond that, I wouldn't like working with people who are so clearly children. And not even good children.

It can't be bullying if the person (that would be bullied) isn't even aware of it.

Source: I was actually bullied as a kid. I couldn't care less if people are making fun of my name (or anything else about me) without me knowing about it.

If I found out someone thought my name was funny enough to make it on a list, I'd be curious and probably want to know more about why. Offense doesn't even cross my mind.